First paragraph:
Anthony Downs' economic theory of democracy (1957) and
Gunnar Sjo¨blom's arena model of party strategy (1968)
are obvious points of departure for research into party
strategy and party competition, bearing in mind that most of
the popular and historically successful models of party
strategy and competition were originally developed on the
basis of empirical data and experience from the 1950s and
1960s (Budge and Farlie, 1983; Downs, 1957; Sartori, 1976;
Sjo¨blom, 1968). Since then, the evolution of modern
election campaigning is supposed to have greatly influenced
parties' strategic reasoning and action. Electorates are
becoming increasingly volatile and less attached to
political parties (Dalton, 2006). Many party systems are
displaying signs of ideological depolarization, and election
campaigns are becoming increasingly important as the
proportion of late deciders among voters continues to rise
(Holmberg and Oscarsson, 2004). Similar developments have
been reported from many European countries, often
accompanied by calls for further empirical observation of
party competition and its implications (Gunther and Diamond,
2003). In this context, we believe that much can be learned
from juxtaposing established models of party competition --
which all claim to have something important to say on voting
behaviour -- with empirical data on how party elites
perceive voting behaviour. Under the influence of
modernization and individualization trends in voting
behaviour, are party elites changing their perceptions of
voting behaviour? If so, does this have any implications for
popular theories of party strategy and models of party
competition?

Last Paragraph:
So far we have been unable to find any convincing
explanation for the general patterns evident in both
parties. Instead, the empirical patterns suggest that we
should look for more party-specific explanations, since the
party elites under investigation clearly had different ways
of thinking about the voters and their behaviour at the
start of the study period. Future research would benefit
from including more parties and more countries that might
have different party systems and somewhat different
experiences of voting results. This would make it possible
to study which patterns are unique and which are
generalizable. When the next step has been taken, we can
investigate further how different perceptions of voting
behaviour affect party strategies. For example, do party
elites which rely more heavily on a Downsian perspective
tend to emphasize ideological positioning in campaign
planning more often than others? Or, do party elites which
rely on a competence model more extensively focus on past
and future performances than other actors?